Visiting is vital to the wellbeing of residents in residential care and their loved ones and should continue to be supported as safely as possible. This is why we encourage care homes to apply our national guidance at a local level with oversight from Directors of Public Health, taking account of local risk factors.

Every care home should develop its own risk assessment and visiting protocol which should be agreed in liaison with the local Health Protection Team and/or Care Home Clinical and Care Professional Oversight Team. Where outdoor visits take place will be dependent upon the unique environment of the care home and consideration should be given to ensuring that this is as safe and comfortable as possible. The guidance confirms that outdoor structures require sufficient ventilation and air flow and ensure there is adequate space within them for people to physically distance at all times, including when it rains.

With regard to planning restrictions, the Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning wrote to planning authorities on 2 nd July encouraging them to take a relaxed and pragmatic approach to the enforcement of breaches of planning control during the pandemic – in particular with regard to the temporary use of outdoor spaces to enable businesses to continue to operate, whilst supporting social distancing.

Planning regulations already permit a wide range of temporary developments and changes of use for up to 28 days per calendar year without the need to apply for planning permission and our letter to local authorities stated that, while physical distancing requirements remain, it is likely that many temporary uses will be needed for longer periods. The letter states that, in line with the wider approach to relaxing planning control at this time, and for the avoidance of doubt, we do not expect the limits of the 28 day rule to be enforced against reasonable temporary outdoor uses, which may include temporary structures, should a longer period be appropriate and helpful to businesses.

We have allocated a total of £150 million this year for social care as part of our additional COVID funding to help the social care sector deal with the financial implications of the pandemic. Our Winter Plan recognises that to ensure winter preparedness this year, that additional resources will be required and the Plan is being supported by further funding of up to £112 million. We are working with COSLA, and wider partners, immediately on effective allocation of this funding through mechanisms that promote additionality of services and value for money.

I have had a minimum of twice-weekly discussions with the Chief Dental Officer throughout the pandemic. The CDO provides regular advice and updates on all aspects of the remobilisation of NHS dentistry, including on the decision to enable dentists to provide the full range of NHS care and treatment to all patients.

Work has been carried out at pace to improve our understanding and risk management of COVID-19 transmission in dental settings, which has allowed for further progression with NHS dental remobilisation. Dentists have been able to provide the full range of NHS care and treatment to patients from 1 November, however, this is not business as usual.

Because of physical distancing and infection prevention and control arrangements the number of patients that can be seen safely remains below normal levels. As practices will have a limited number of appointments each day, dentists will have to continue to use their clinical judgement to prioritise those people with urgent dental problems and those most in need of treatment and it will take time for dental teams to work through all the patients who wish to be seen.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) performs the registration and statistical functions of the Registrar General for Scotland and the archival functions of the Keeper of the Records of Scotland, including maintaining the archives as one of Scotland’s five National Collections. The purpose of NRS is to collect, preserve and produce information about Scotland's people and history and make it available to inform current and future generations.

Registers of Scotland (ROS) keeps public registers of land, property, and other legal documents in Scotland as part of the official functions of the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland. ROS have been provided with a copy of Mr Mundell’s PQ, and are separately managing a response for their organisation.

NRS has three Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for their customer enquiries. Online orders are dispatched within 15 days, ScotlandsPeople customer enquiries are responded to within 3 days and Historical/Legal search service enquiries are responded to within 20 days.

There is currently no enquiry backlog and expected response times are being met.

Public access to NRS buildings is not available at this time due to COVID-19 restrictions, therefore face to face enquiries from customers are not taking place.

Decisions regarding the discharge destination of patients ready for discharge is not a matter for the NHS. These decisions are made by social work professionals under the terms of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, as part of a multi-disciplinary assessment of the individual's needs, wherever possible involving the patient, family and carers in the decision making process.

Under the terms of the Coronavirus Act 2020, where it is not practicable to carry out an assessment, or to do so would cause unnecessary delay in providing care services to anyone before discharge then the local authority cannot apply any charges until that assessment takes place. These charges can be backdated if the assessment deems the placement is permanent, and all parties are in agreement.

Delivery of the police 101 service is an operational matter for the Chief Constable. Police Scotland have advised that this is an exceptionally busy time for the service and particularly for the Contact, Command and Control Division, with an unprecedented call levels to both the 101 non-emergency number and 999 call lines.

On occasion, 101 callers may have had to wait longer for their calls to be answered, but this is no different to any non-urgent public service in the current circumstances. While in the 101 call queue, members of the public are also reminded that they can call 999 if the situation is an emergency.

I am very grateful to Police Scotland's staff for keeping 101 functioning and efficient during these unprecedented times.

When applications are submitted to the Energy Consents Unit there is a requirement to advertise the application under Regulation 8 of the Electricity (Applications for Consent) Regulations 1990 and Regulation 20 of The Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017. Developers are required to advertise their project in local newspaper and this has not been revised during COVID-19 pandemic.

As at 4 November the Scottish Government had received 30 requests from the conference and events sector to host test events. The 30 requests comprise:

• 7 football matches
• 2 rugby matches
• 3 horse racing meets
• 1 golf event
• 1 motor racing event
• 5 business events
• 9 performing arts events/companies
• 1 music gig
• 1 comedy event

The Scottish Government has worked with stakeholders throughout the pandemic with a view to supporting the conference and events sector, including through the Events Industry Advisory Group, which was created in response to COVID-19. Test events have been part of this approach. Some outdoor sporting test events have been successfully delivered and a modest programme of further test events was being considered. However, the additional measures necessary to protect the population from the spread of COVID-19, announced on 21 September, meant that the programme had to be paused.

We remain supportive of test events, from which we can learn lessons to support the resumption of live events at the appropriate time. Our intention is therefore to work with stakeholders to deliver further test events, subject to virus restrictions and with mitigations in place to prevent virus transmission.

Scottish Government has received representations from the Bingo Association, Bingo Halls, Staff, customers, MSP’s and MP’s. We have been in close contact with the Bingo Association and have worked with them to ensure that Bingo halls have been able to open when it has been safe to so with the relevant restrictions in place to help protect its staff and customers alike.

After feedback on the Strategic Framework published on 23 October, which showed bingo halls closed below level 2, the revised Framework issued on 29 October permits bingo halls to be open at level 2 and below. This has been reflected in the regulations which came into force on 2 November. While suppression of the virus is our key objective, decisions on the Framework also reflect supporting broader health and wellbeing, mitigating social harms and supporting the economy.